Town Square

Eshoo testifies on Lehman Bros. losses

Original post made
on Apr 20, 2010

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, is testifying Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee on the need for federal financial relief for public agencies that lost hundreds of millions of dollars when Lehman Bros. went bankrupt in 2008.

Posted by kanank
a resident of Jackson Park
on Apr 20, 2010 at 2:28 pm

I find it outrageous that these public agencies invested or threw away the ciitzens money to these wolves in Wall street and now blame them for losing them. What a bunch of highly paid fools these officials and Anna Eshoo for supporting these officials. I don't believe Anna has any credibilty on this issue. The people who are responsible for throwing away our money should be fired and put in prison.

Posted by Taxpayer
a resident of Waverly Park
on Apr 20, 2010 at 2:43 pm

Our local government officials need to take accountability on this issue as they made the decision to invest. Any investment is risky, and that is why we have a government employee that manages how the money is to be invested. If they are taking the position that they are not responsible, then lets rid the position and save the taxpayer the annual salary and the life time pension. I'm sure we can all put that money into better used that paying these local employees.

As for Anna, I just don't see what value she adds in this matter. Of course, let's just add new laws to limit our choices so that in about 10 years, every aspect of our lives are governed.

Posted by Another Tax Payer
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Apr 20, 2010 at 3:19 pm

Just a small point - but, maybe this speaks to how either unintelligent Ms. Eschoo is, or disingenuous. By arguing that local taxpayers should not suffer because of Wall Street's failures, it seems to imply she is looking to the fed to make taxpayers 'whole' - but, from whom does she suppose the fed will get the money to do this? I believe the answer is obvious - other taxpayers! The only way to come close to making the taxpayer whole would be for those responsible for mismanaging the money to be held accountable - from where I sit, its the folks that invested it irresponsibly as much as anyone. Frankly, the current crop of pols ability to deflect responsibility and talk in circles is simply astounding.

Posted by a.j.
a resident of North Whisman
on Apr 21, 2010 at 12:08 pm

Let me get this straight. Three posts, and not ONE post on the actions of Lehman brothers? All posts blaming the government employee solely for investing the tax dollars in "highly related investments"? Notice it did not say "highly RISKY investments", which is probably what would have triggered the type of response that the three posts above me had.

What are you folks assuming, that these investments were some how high risk and that the ownership of the responsibility should be SOLELY on the individual? What if they were not? What if they were simple long term bond like investments that were essentially ripped asunder during the tumulus market times of 2008?

Yay, lets raise our hands up and toast the wolves, while ostracizing the sheep. Forget about actually addressing the ROOT of the matter, which is the behavior of sed wolves. All in name of "freedom of choice"

This sort of ideology does not serve the taxpayers at all. Do NOT forget, that if you are going to blame Eshoo's " local government workers" for investing the taxpayers money to the "wolves", you need to blame WE the PEOPLE for electing the individuals who made the decisions to invest the taxpayer money.

Do you want to blame the sheep for being fed information by wolves (and that includes constituents who make up the local governments such as those in Ms. Eshoo's district) or the wolves themselves who spread all kinds of false propaganda and hopes during the "glory" years (as mr "cramer" said on fox news.buy..buy..buy), when there were no real SIGNS to us, the sheep of anything going bad.

I prefer to blame the system that rewards this level of betting on other people's investments. Whether it is an individual who got screwed, or taxpayers as a whole whose money went down the drain, the REASON behind the screwing was the same - misinformation spewed by folks like those at Lehman who pulled Maddoff like scams on people daily basis. Meanwhile..who profited? (You do not need to answer that - it is rhetorical).

The third post outlined the need to have accountability for the local government officials who deemed it appropriate to invest the money with Lehman. What if they were fed false information, or mis information, much like what was going on for the entirety (and continues to happen today) of this crazed period.

If you really want to address the crux of the matter, how bout reinforcing Glass-Stegal (sp) so that banks can be banks and investment firms who take your money and attempt to play roulette with it can do that, all with CLEAR and PROPER disclaimers to the customer. Then, the customer can safely store the money with banks over the long term and not be in jeapordy of being screwed like folks, and the folks of Ms. Eshoo's district, were. That way, you will also be able to follow the money trail much clearer and figure out if a local agency was indeed "playing roulette" with your money by giving it to investment firms to do as they please.

I'll blame Anna E for everything, I never voted for her, and never will. I'll take the blame for investing in wall street, as everyone should. We have come to the point where we depend on government regulations to protect us from breathing the air, to investments that are to good to be true. It's time to stop the maddness, take back our freedom and dump Washington DC in Cheaspeake Bay.

Posted by reader
a resident of another community
on Apr 21, 2010 at 3:11 pm

Stop the madness is right.

Unfortunately, we literally do "depend on government regulations to protect us from breathing the air." Anybody who was around in the 70's can remember how unbreathable the air was before all that evil environmental legislation was passed (largely by Nixon).

But hey - keep on with the crazy, vfree! It sure does make American politics interesting (if a joke).

Posted by eric
a resident of another community
on Apr 21, 2010 at 4:29 pm

What exactly are you all accusing Eshoo of doing? She's advocating for municipalities in her district. She didnt encourage them to invest funds in any specific way.

What exactly are you accusing the municipalities of doing? Should they have kept their money under a matress? They invested large chunks of change with what everyone thought was a high-end and reputable investment house.

San Mateo is hurting because Lehman engaged in fraud. Their investments in Lehman had the highest possible ratings you can get right up until the moment they went bankrupt. There are lawsuits pending and yes, legislation pending which bails out the County much like the investment firms who were too big to fail.

This is sound policy. Completely addresses the Wall Street versus Main Street phenomenon.

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